St. Anthony Main and Parkway theaters honor two unique film talents

Thetheaters at St. Anthony Main are celebrating two one-of-a-kind talents with special tributes over the next several weeks.

Through Feb. 20, the theater is honoring the memory of Philip Seymour Hoffman with two of his most impressive, most challenging performances, “Capote” and “The Master.”
Hoffman won a best actor Oscar for his shrewdly observed portrayal of Truman Capote in Bennett Miller’s biographical drama “Capote.” The film focuses on the six years the author devoted to researching and writing his revolutionary true-crime “novel” “In Cold Blood,” a book that changed the face of journalism. The film shows us a process that erodes the writer’s soul (he seductively exploits and manipulates everyone he encounters on this mammoth assignment) while gilding his reputation. Hoffman captured Capote’s mannerism to perfection, but his performance is beyond mimicry. It’s some form of eerie transformation.
In Paul Thomas Anderson’s “The Master,” Hoffman plays Lancaster Dodd, a man of aspiring intellect, the founder of a pseudo-scientific spiritual cult. He establishes a conflicted father-son dynamic with a man of irrepressible, primal passions (Joaquin Phoenix.) The film has been seen as a thinly veiled biopic of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, but there are strong, strange subterranean currents flowing through it. The protagonists’ dance of desire and disillusionment with one another is white-hot with emotion, with scenes so powerful they shadow you like a physical presence for days.
From Feb. 21 through March 3, the Film Society of Minneapolis and St. Paul will present a Wes Anderson retrospective at the St. Anthony Main and Parkway theaters. The St. Anthony Main titles are “Bottle Rocket,” Feb. 21-22; “Moonrise Kingdom,” Feb. 21 and 23; and “Fantastic Mr. Fox,” Feb. 22-23. At the Parkway, it’s “The Darjeeling Limited,” Feb. 27; “The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou,” Feb. 28; and “The Royal Tenenbaums,” March 2-3.The final presentation will be a members-only free, advance screening of “The Grand Budapest Hotel” 7 p.m.Monday, March 10 back at St. Anthony Main. Information about RSVPing for the screening, as well as becoming a Film Society member can be found here.